About this episode
At the advanced institute "War and Human Nature," Tikvah hosted Yale University diplomat in residence and career foreign minister Charles Hill for a lecture on "War and Human Consciousness." Mr. Hill's session began from the insight that the distinctively human quality – the essence of human nature – is the capacity for reasoned speech. In light of this recognition, Mr. Hill focused on the rhetoric of war and peace that has typified past cultures and our own, analyzing different strategies that have been employed to govern and focus man's inescapable penchant toward war, and inviting us to wonder how we, who have developed a rhetoric of war's eradication, can understand the continued threats of bloodshed and battle. The seminar was recorded on June 12, 2014.